1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to organizer assemblies that are used on a desktop for holding and organizing documents, papers, envelopes, checks and other items. In particular, the present invention relates to an organizer assembly that provides multiple uses, that allows its trays to be removed, and that is simple in construction yet provides a stable support for the trays.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Desktop organizer assemblies are very popular in today's business environment, since they provide a useful means by which people can sort and store documents and other important items. There also exists a wide variety of such desktop assemblies since different people sort and store their documents and materials in a variety of different ways. One type of organizer assembly that has become popular is a multi-tray organizer assembly in which a plurality of trays are stacked one on top of the other in a compact vertical arrangement. Vertically stacked multi-tray organizers provide the user with a plurality of trays for storing different categories of documents, with each of the trays being easily assessible due to the vertical stacked nature of the trays.
Unfortunately, most of these presently-available vertically stacked multi-tray organizer assemblies suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, some of these assemblies are provided in an integrated structure where the trays are provided in one piece with the frame of the assembly. This reduces the flexibility of the assembly since the user cannot remove or replace any of the trays, and the user cannot add additional trays.
In response to this problem, certain organizer assemblies are provided with a frame or base structure and a plurality of trays that can be removed from the frame. Unfortunately, these organizer assemblies still suffer from at least one or more drawbacks.
First, the structures of some of these organizer assemblies can be rather complex, especially where the frame or base structure is provided with many separate parts that are needed to perform the dual functions of holding the plurality of trays together and allowing these trays to be separated and removed. One such example is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,810 to Juergens et al., in which the riser plate members which support the trays in stacked relation are provided with a relatively complex structure that requires meeting close tolerances for the riser plate members to function effectively.
Second, some of these organizer assemblies are provided in a manner which makes it very inconvenient or difficult to remove the trays. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,838 to Nathan et al., the user must remove the top two trays before the bottom tray can be removed. Therefore, the user will be discouraged from removing the lower trays, essentially negating the removability function of the trays. As another example, the structure and/or configuration of the frame of the assembly sometimes obstructs the user's access to the documents in the trays, or makes it inconvenient for the user to remove the tray.
Third, although some of these organizer assemblies may have succeeded in providing a simple structure, the stability of these assemblies may have been compromised.
As a result, there remains a need for an organizer assembly which allows its trays to be conveniently accessed and removed, which is simple in construction, and which is configured to allow the user to conveniently access documents and materials stored therein, yet which provides a stable support for the trays.